I’ll have to admit not really having heard of Jennifer Westwood and the Handsome Devils, however I after a good hour listening to their latest album, I wondered why I hadn’t, especially as the album has been out for a few months (this is why I bother checking Vickye’s emails to discover gems like ‘Greetings From This Town’).
Sitting firmly in the country rock category, in Jennifer Westwood you have a powerful vocalist who could do a capella and chill with no hassle. I’ve reviewed a lot of female vocalists in my time at FTCR and her vocals have a lot more depth then many. Of course it’s not all about the voice, it’s about the whole package.
The opening track ‘Bad Luck Charm’ is a story about a guy who is essentially not good for her, likening the relationship to a “Chain around my neck, I pull away and you pull me back… you turn around and put a hammer on me”. The latter part could be interpreted physically or mentally. It’s really in the chorus though that Jennifer’s vocals shine through in particular. Dylan Dunbar adds some Keith Urban-esque electric guitar.
‘Living On The Fringe’ is probably the only one that I can’t really figure out, at a relatively short two and a half minutes, it almost feels like the intro of a song that doesn’t quite evolve into a power ballad. However, some of the guitar licks and the intro of the song reminds me a little of Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, who herself is one of the most underrated female lead singers going.
For fans of a more traditional sound ‘Driving My Life Away’ will be right up your street, taking on the classic narrative ‘Sod this I’m out of this town’. What’s impressive is the range of musical influences, on the one hand songs such as ‘Cowgirl Blues’ lean on a more bluesy influence, then again another emerging artist Lindsay Ell, in terms of musicianship at least discovered blues prior to country. ‘Wade in the Water’ is another one of the smooth bluesy numbers.
Overall what you’re getting is a really eclectic mix of blues, country and southern rock. Over the years the latter two genres have intertwined with each other with acts such as Jake Owen and Kid Rock marketing themselves as country. ‘Red-neck Man’ is a perfect mix of the two and features backing vocals from someone who at present I’ll call ‘some dude’ (wouldn’t mind knowing who, if you read this).
The variety in this record is one of the things I like best about this album, ‘Divorcee’ is a pure southern gold. The intro to the song reminded me of Status Quo a little. ‘Nobody’s Business’ which is as the title suggests, about telling someone to go and do one.
However the one constant on ‘Greetings From This Town’ is Jennifer Westwood vocally being fucking awesome. ‘Sinner Part Time’ is a nice ballad, treading the old country theme of drinking to drown the pain of life, and in a scarily relatable line “Take to the bottle, to bury my sorrow in the evenings, a little too long”. Too often in country music, at least recently is the sense of escapism that artists seem to want to project in their music, whilst, for me country was built on the very opposite.
It’s a little difficult to pick an obviously outstanding track from the album, but my personal favourite was ‘Bad Luck Charm’. Recent albums by the likes of Blake Shelton and Thomas Rhett have 4 or 5 good quality ‘hit’ songs, then 7 or 8 half-arsed efforts just to fill the album out. However Jennifer Westwood and the Handsome Devils have delivered a very consistent album which I enjoyed listening to from start to finish. It really is quite a shock to me how they are not as well known as they should be. Vocally and in terms of their musicianship are equal to the more well known names in country.
The art of making a album is one that I fear will be lost one day, but this restores some of my faith. ‘Greetings From This Town’ may not appeal to the fans of Martina, Willie, and Merle, but would certainly appeal to fans of Eric Church, or fans of the more sassy female vocalists such as LeAnn Rimes. I guess I am bit of a sucker for that quick southern tongue.
Anyway enough from me, go and listen to their album.
Originally posted here.
